Knight, T and Boyd, D (2008) An investigation into how property developers use their social networks to drive development. In: Dainty, A (ed.) Proceedings of 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.
Abstract
While there is a substantial literature available regarding the individual specialist constituents of the development process, such as planning, finance, construction management, and economic perspectives, there is very little that discusses the whole process or the perspective of the property developer, their behaviour, methods and motivations. The world of property development is somewhat hidden and it needs researching to consolidate our understanding of the creation of the built environment. The property development world is renowned for its individual’s personalities and it is how these individuals work that is of interest. Drawing on Harris and Cundell’s observations that individual judgement is often made based on experience and instinct or “gut feel”, this investigation aims to explore how developers approach complex decisions with incomplete knowledge. A series of semi-structured, exploratory interviews were conducted with small, independent commercial property developers. Preliminary findings suggested that there are a number of elements whose influence plays a significant role in the development process including social networks and the resultant social capital, which appear to bear a significant impact on opportunity identification. This paper considers the role and importance (as understood by the actors themselves) of their contacts (i.e. social networks) in the commercial development process. Interview data was analysed from an interpretivist stance and compared to relevant theory. Findings suggest that developers have a conscious awareness of the influence and impact that their network relationships have on development.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | commercial property development; complex decisions; opportunity identification; social capital; social networks |
| Index terms: | motivation, social network, commercial property, drawing, interview, social capital, personality, investigation, property development, commercial development, built environment |
| Subjects: | psychology, infrastructure and transport systems, construction type, sociology, data collection methods, technical documentation, economic development, behavioral psychology |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Research Practice, Construction Technology, Urban Studies, Human Resources |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here